The state of Western Australia (WA) has imposed new measures to punish not only online lottery betting operators but also state residents who dare patronize such sites.

On Wednesday, the WA government introduced legislation to protect state-owned lottery monopoly Lotterywest by prohibiting sites like Lottoland from advertising their services. The measure is somewhat redundant, given that Australia’s federal government already approved a nationwide ban on so-called ‘synthetic’ lotteries that kicks in on January 1, 2019.

But the WA government’s plan goes further, including provisions that would hit lottery betting customers with personal fines of A$2,500 (US$1,800). The WA government has yet to explain exactly how authorities would detect an individual’s use of such sites, but does plan to give the state’s Gaming and Wagering Commission ‘sweeping’ new powers to police the market.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Legislative Assembly member Paul Papalia saying that the new tools would future-proof Lotterywest from unwanted competition by granting the gaming regulator “the power to act in the event of some other unforeseen disruptive betting process coming onto the market, they can just outlaw it immediately.”